Confronting Secularism in Europe and India

Brian Black is Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Lancaster, UK. He is the author of The Character of the Self in Ancient India (2007).Gavin Hyman is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion at the University of Lancaster, UK. He has published widely in contemporary philosophy and religious thought, and his most recent book is Traversing the Middle: Ethics, Politics, Religion (2013).Graham M. Smith is Lecturer in Political Theory at the University of Leeds, UK. He is the author of Friendship and the Political: Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Schmitt (2011).

• Confronting Secularism in Europe and India: An Introduction (Brian Black, University of Lancaster, UK)Part I: Political Secularism1. Reframing Secularism: Religion, Nation and Minorities in India (Rochana Bajpai, Department of Politics and International Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London, UK)2. Should Europe Learn from Indian Secularism? (Bhargava Rajeev, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi, India) Part II: Secularism and Religion3. Understanding Secularism by Means of Genealogy (Gavin Hyman, University of Lancaster, UK) 4. The Political Theology of Indian Christian Citizenship: An Instance of Secularism as Culture (Nandini Chatterjee, University of Exeter, UK)Part III: Secularism, Religion and Violence5. Secularism, Agonism and the Politics of Conviction (Mark Wenman, University of Nottingham, UK)6. Secularism, History and Violence in India (Deborah Sutton, University of Lancaster, UK)Part IV: Beyond Secularism?7. Confronting the Confrontation: Europe beyond Secularism? (Evert van der Zweerde, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands)8. Secularization beyond Western Eyes (Vincent Pecora, University of Utah, USA)BibliographyIndex

In these searching, wide-ranging and thought-provoking essays, scholars from different disciplines and with expertise in different cultural traditions offer the reader a comparative understanding of the uses and challenges of secularism. The study of European and Indian contexts is illuminating, and an example of genuine intercultural discussion that is as rare as it is important.